The district-level purchase committee will meet from October 9 to 11 to fix the fair value for acquiring land on the Mukkola-Karode stretch for the widening of the Kazhakoottam-Karode national highway bypass. District collector K N Satheesh will chair the purchase committee meeting.

The widening of the 43-km Kazhakoottam-Karode stretch to 45 metres as per the national highway standards has been stuck up for over two decades. The 3 (D) notification for acquiring the land was released in March while the 3 (G) notification for categorizing the land was released the other day.

Land owners from three panchayats — Kottukal, Kanjiramkulam and Thirupuram — have been asked to attend the meeting, to be held at the conference hall of the collectorate. The dates for the purchase committee for Karode and Chenkal panchayats will be announced later.

Collector Satheesh said a mutually agreed amount would be fixed as fair value. “People will be given a chance to raise their demands. The rate fixed by the DLPC will be sent to the state level purchase committee. The final rate will be sent to the chief secretary for approval,” he said. Deputy collector and tahsildar will also attend the meeting.

Kovalam-Kaliyikkavila bypass action council chairman V Sudhakaran said prime land cost Rs 5-10 lakh/cent at Kanjiramkulam and Thirupuram. “We learnt that the fair value is fixed based on land registrations held before March. Normally, people tend to mention reduced amount for land registration to avoid tax. We had submitted documents of some registrations held recently but officials said they were not acceptable as the land was registered after issuing 3 (D) notification,” he said, adding that the demands would be raised at the meeting.

As many as 70.65 hectares will have to be acquired on the Mukkola-Karode stretch. Land has already been acquired for widening the first 26-km stretch from Kazhakoottam to Mukkola and the National Highway Authority of India has invited tenders for the work. The cost of the entire project is estimated at Rs 750 crore.